"l was born with the devil in me. I
could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than the poet can help the inspiration to sing."
As Chicago's first serial killer, H. H. Holmes terrorized the Windy City in the late 1800s. From opening up a "murder hotel" to selling his victims' body parts on the black market, Holmes showed no remorse for his heinous crimes. While it remains unknown how many people he murdered in his house of horrors, he once boasted of killing 27 people. However, some estimates claim the actual number may have been as low as 9- or as high as 200.
“I was born with the devil in me. I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than the poet can help the inspiration to sing.” This quote was in the confession of Dr. H.H. Holmes when he was caught in 1896. These words are very chilling due to the fact that this man is believed to had killed up to 200 people and not only thinks that he couldn’t help himself but in some ways compares himself to an artist. Holmes’ gruesome murders still inspire ideas in modern day society, such as T.V. shows like American Horror Story. It could be argued that his influence on society would be same as if he were still alive for generations to come. A human monster is a person that is not congenial with the common populace and Holmes is one of the very first recorded in American History. Herman Webster Mudgett, later known as H.H. Holmes, is a human monster created of both nature and nurture, like the fictional character named James March, and all of Holmes’ victims were subjected to the fear of death as they were usually tortured before they were killed.
Herman Webster Mudgett was born on May 16th, 1861 to Theodate Page Price and Levi Horton Mudgett. Some sources record his birth in 1860, but the New Hampshire, Birth and Christenings Index and Herman himself in his confession states that he was born in 1861. Mudgett had three other siblings, two sisters and one brother. The oldest was his sister Ellen, the second oldest was his brother Arthur, and he was the third oldest in front
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